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Chapter 47: Session 47

I was talking about my primary school. I rarely went, and it was such a relief to everybody that I wanted to give it to them as much as possible. Why could I not give them one hundred percent relief? For the simple reason that I loved them too - I mean the people: the teachers, the servants, the gardeners. Once in a while I wanted to visit them, particularly when I wanted to show them something. A little boy, anxious to show everything he has to those he loves.but those things were sometimes dangerous. Even now I cannot resist laughing.

I remember one day very vividly. It has always been waiting there for its moment. Perhaps the moment has come, and it has to be told and shared. It is a series of events..

I had just learned how to catch snakes. Snakes are poor people, innocent too, and beautiful; very alive. You cannot believe what I am saying unless you have seen two snakes in love. You may wonder how snakes make love. They don’t make it - it is only man who makes everything - they do it. And when they are in love they are just flames. And the reason I am saying that it is surprising is because they have no bones, yet they still stand up to kiss each other! Stand on what? They have no legs either, they just stand on their tails. If you see two snakes standing on their tails kissing each other, you will never bother to see any Hollywood film again.

I had just learned how to catch a snake and how to make the distinction between the poisonous snake and the nonpoisonous. A few are absolutely so poisonless that you can perhaps call them another kind of fish, because many of them live in water. The water snakes are the most innocent, even more than fish. Fish are cunning, but water snakes are not. I had tried my hand at all kinds of snakes, so when I say it, I am not just telling somebody else’s story, it is my story.

I had just caught a snake. Now this was the day to go to the school. You will say, “Strange.?” Otherwise I was so busy, there was no time to waste with stupid questions, answers, foolish maps. Even then I could see that maps are all nonsense, because on the earth I don’t see lines anywhere, either for the district or the municipality. So all the nations are just cow dung, and not holy either - unholy cow dung. If anything like that exists, it is politics - unholy and cow dung, both together. It is politics that has created the maps.

I was not the one to waste my time there. I was exploring real geography; going to the mountains, disappearing for days. Only my Nani knew when I would come. And for days I would not be heard or seen, because I was not there. And everybody, I think, except my Nani, was happy. You will come to know why.and they were right, about that I have no doubt.